The nation’s top-ranked crew will be on the Montlake Cut this Saturday taking on the UW in one of the Huskies’ biggest races of the year.

The California Golden Bears come into this weekend ranked No. 1 in the nation on both the men’s and women’s sides and have absolutely dominated their opponents all year long.

“They’ve got a lot of really good athletes on their team,” women’s head coach and program coordinator Bob Ernst said.

The Huskies enter this race on Saturday ranked No. 7 in the nation on the women’s side and No. 4 in the nation on the men’s side. While the UW women have not competed against Cal yet this season, the men rowed in the same race three weekends ago in the San Diego Crew Classic, where the Golden Bears defeated the Huskies by a slim two-seat margin.

The UW men are coming off a tough weekend during which the varsity eight boat lost two very close races against a couple of the nation’s best teams in Stanford and Wisconsin. This dual-meet race against Cal, which was first started in 1903, has a lot riding on it — not just because the Huskies want to get back on the winning side of things, but because of the great tradition behind this race.

“This is the best rivalry on the west coast,” men’s head coach Michael Callahan said. “We’ll really get to see where we stand, so I’m really excited.”

With big victories against Washington State two weeks ago, the UW women have been training hard to build on their early success.

“Since the Washington State race, we’ve done a lot of really hard work,” Ernst said.

The morning of races will consist of four head-to-head matchups for both the men and women, concluding with the highly anticipated varsity eight races.

Reach reporter Scott Eisen at sports@dailyuw.com.